MSC Software Corporation (MSC), a global leader in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation software and services and part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, released MSC Apex Generative Design 2020, a tool that enables engineers to explore new approaches and optimize any part of their design in one step to develop innovative products up to 80% faster than conventional approaches.
MSC Apex Generative Design generates lightweight and smoothed preliminary component concepts based on just the engineering goals. It does away with the iterative process of eliminating unsuitable candidates, freeing up the engineer’s time to explore the design space and find more optimal and novel solutions by fine tuning pre-vetted, manufacturing-ready designs.
With MSC Apex Generative Design:
–A surgeon can create a smarter, latticed implant design that’s pre-validated for additive manufacturing and the same weight as the bone it replaced, improving biocompatibility to encourage muscle attachment and patient comfort.
–The aerospace engineer can redesign a product part-by-part for lightweighting, confident in maintaining the same performance and safety while improving efficiency.
–An automotive designer can build a motorcycle chassis that is 56% lighter than previous iterations, improving range while saving on fuel consumption.
–Manufacturers can exploit the capabilities of additive manufacturing and optimize their designs to enable first-time-right part production for entirely new products.
MSC Apex Generative Design can run on a normal laptop to generate initial candidates within an hour, and produce a final design within a matter of hours. Adding to its accessibility, the tool is also now equipped with an intuitive interface, opening its capabilities up to designers and engineers without specialized knowledge of computer aided engineering. Design goals can be set up directly, or set against an existing design from Computer Aided Design (CAD) or directly from CAE models.
MSC Apex Generative Design performs topology optimization and intelligent smoothing in a single step, producing parts with low distortion risk and ‘bionic’ printable geometries. The resulting parts are automatically designed for performance, balancing the material use with strength requirements and stress distribution.
Users can link MSC Apex Generative Design with industry-leading manufacturing simulation tools Simufact Additive for metals and Digimat AM for polymers to reduce build failures and make optimal use of materials at every step.
The new tool was first announced in November 2019. This first major release introduces new controls that make it easier for designers to adjust the complexity of the generated designs and how much the fixation points can be reduced. It also exploits many productivity benefits of the underlying MSC Apex platform, for example direct export of engineered models (mesh) to Computer Aided Design (CAD) formats so that generative design optimisation can be used within common CAD/CAM manufacturing workflows.
Hexagon | MSC Software
www.mscsoftware.com/product/msc-apex-generative-design
Filed Under: 3D CAD World
